An automatic sewing machine, as shown in FIG. 6, has been heretofore proposed for sewing the pocket pieces onto a garment body. This earlier apparatus includes a housing 1 upon which a sewing machine 2 is mounted. This sewing machine is formed on one side thereof with an X-Y drive unit 3. The drive unit 3 includes a workpiece presser 4 which is mounted for movement in the X-Y axes. A workpiece folder 5 is mounted on one end of the housing 1.
The workpiece folding apparatus 5 is shown in FIG. 7 and includes a pattern 7 coupled to a horizontal cylinder 6, and a work plate 8 having a cylinder group 9 thereon which is disposed to encircle the pattern 7. The cylinders 9 carry auxiliary plates 10 thereon. The work plate 8 and a presser plate 16 are vertically moved by a vertical cylinder 11. A frame 12 is mounted on the workpiece presser 4 and is provided with a groove 12a so formed as to follow and compensate the pattern 7. A stacker 13 is disposed in front of the sewing machine 2.
As seen from FIG. 8(a), the automatic sewing machine arranged in the aforementioned manner functions so that the work plate 8 is retracted upwardly from the pattern 7 by the vertical cylinder 11 to place a garment body 14 on the housing 1, as shown in FIG. 8(a). The horizontal cylinder 6 is driven to move the pattern 7 to the upper portion of the garment body 14, and the pocket piece 15 is laid on the pattern 7 so that a presser plate 16 and the work plate 8 are lowered to clamp the pocket piece 15 between the pattern 7 and the presser plate 16, as shown in FIG. 8(b). Now, the vertical cylinder 11 is driven to lower the work plate 8 and the presser plate 16 at the same time. The cylinder group 9 is then actuated, as illustrated in FIG. 8(c), to allow the auxiliary plates 10 to fold and engage the edge of the pocket piece 15 with the pattern 7 on the other side thereof. The folded pocket piece 15 is lowered by the vertical cylinder 11 to the body 14, as seen from FIG. 8(d). The cylinder groups 9 are then returned to their original position, as shown in FIG. 8(e), to then raise the presser plate 16 and the work plate 8 by means of the vertical cylinder 11, as shown in FIG. 8(f).
Next, frame 12 when moved to carry the body 14 and the pocket piece 15 thereon, is then moved towards the foot of the needle of the sewing machine 2 upon removal of the pattern 7, to sew the pocket piece 15 to the body 14. The body 14 to which the pocket piece 15 is sewn is stacked within the stacker 13.
The workpiece folding apparatus for an automatic sewing machine fabricated as above mentioned is adapted to drive the cylinders in a predetermined sequence. However, changing the sequence is difficult. Although those who are skilled in the art are well aware that the product may be improved in quality where the workpiece folding sequence is varied, this results in many complicated and troublesome techniques which require mechanically adjusting the sequence, as well as the increased effort of changing the software used.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a workpiece folding apparatus which is capable of inputting a folding sequence for pocket pieces through a control panel or box, establishing the sequence thereof conforming to the shape of the pocket piece, and storing the sequence of operations in a storage medium.
Another object of the invention is to provide a workpiece folding apparatus which is capable of inputting both the drive sequence and timing of the cylinders through the control box, and allows the user to adjust these settings to their satisfaction.